Cardstock Photo Images

I'm known by most of my friends as the one you can count on to always have a camera. From middle school, to high school, and throughout college, I captured just about every moment possible in photographs. I still enjoy photography, but I have let myself get pretty lazy these days. I blame it on one thing, no two things... the invention of the digital camera and lack of time.

In middle school and high school I used a camera that was probably my parents. I don't recall having my own camera, so it had to be my parents Cannon that I took everywhere. I always carried a spare roll or two of film, just in case, and I snapped pictures everywhere I went. Disposable cameras became big at that time, so I'm sure I used those quite frequently, as well. Either way, I was taking pictures on rolls of FILM, which meant I had to have them developed in order to see the goods. My mom wouldn't let me do the one hour developing because it was too expensive, so I always had to drop it off and hope it would be ready in 3 or 4 days. To say I was anxious to pick them up is probably an understantement. I have boxes of pictures from middle school and high school, organized by date and event. I may not look at them now, but I think it will be pretty neat to look at them 10 or 20 years from now.

My first year of college, I remember scanning pictures into my computer in order to put them on my Facebook page. What a time consuming, pain in the rear! It didn't take long for me to break down and splurge on a digital camera... a whopping 4 megapixels back then! My photo world was forever changed after that purchase. All of a sudden, I could see copies of the pictures, delete them, retake them... there is less of a need to have them printed when you've already seen them. That was the beginning of forever looking at empty frames. Not really empty frames, but frames with cardstock images of friendly looking people- happy couples, perfect families, laughing girlfriends, etc.

In college, I did an okay job of taking the time to print pictures. I was able to fill some frames, make some scrap books, and give copies of pictures to friends and family. There are certain events that I slacked more than others on. More particularly, my study abroad trip to Poland in which I took almost 2,000 pictures in 4 weeks... I have printed a small handful of pictures from that trip, but nothing like I had planned (and bought frames for).

Now that I've graduated from college, and the "real world" has taken over my life, I find it even harder to take pictures, let alone print them! So many great photo opportunities have been overlooked due to the fact that I've just become lazy with it. I also partially blame my oh-so-cooperative fiance, who just loves taking pictures. Yes, I'm being sarcastic. In the beginning of our relationship, he seemed to love taking pictures, but I've discovered that was all an act. He was willing to do whatever it took to make me happy in the beginning. Now that I have a ring on my finger, pictures of the two of us are few and far between.

We moved into an apartment back in late September. I couldn't wait to start decorating and make it our own. We painted all the walls, bought fabulous furniture, and things really started to come together. When it came time to unpack the box labeled "Picture Frames," I suddenly felt overwhelmed. I unpacked the frames that already had pictures in them, and placed them throughout the apartment...that was the easy part. The overwhelming part? I have several empty frames. Very nice, ornate frames, all filled with black and white cardstock images. I placed all the "empty" frames around the apartment in the locations I think they look best. That was 5 months ago... they're all (still) placed nicely, (still) displaying images of people I don't know.

One day, sooner than later, I am hoping to have some of my digital pictures printed, so the cardstock photo images can be replaced with familiar faces that will ignite a memory when I look at them...

I am considering purchasing an old camera that will force me to get the film developed. I am also working on making more time in my life to both take and (print out) or develop pictures!